


Echoes In Her Ears

by Luunyscarlet



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Agatha has her dad and Castle Heterodyne as her shoulder angel and devil, Barry why?, Gen, Kid Fic, Shoulder Spirit AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 14:57:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20996687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luunyscarlet/pseuds/Luunyscarlet
Summary: This is a Soulmate AU variation where you have two of the people who are going to be important in your life as a spirit duo. They’re traditionally angel/ devil, but can be common sense/ dumbass or responsibility/ yolo. Aka, how Agatha lost her shoulder spirits and found them again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Girl Genius Event Week.
> 
> Oct 12: It always feels like too large of a commitment.

There are three things that are constant in Agatha’s life:

1\. Her name is Agatha. What her last name is changes from time to time. So far, her surname has been Wilhelm, Fyodor, Tarsus and Adamescu. It all really depends on her uncle, who likes to change their surname from time to time for some reason. Currently, she is going by Agatha Ganea, but that might change once she and her uncle enter the next town. 

2\. She lives with her Uncle Barry. She loves Uncle Barry! Uncle Barry is her most favourite person in the entire _world_. Uncle Barry is big and strong and kind and he’s the smartest person that Agatha has ever known! He’s also the only family she has left after her parents died in an Other attack when she was a baby. Agatha thinks that they must’ve had a home once like most of the people she’s met, but for as long as she can remember, they’ve always been on the road, traveling through Europa together.

3\. She has two special shoulder friends, that no one but her can see. They’re almost always with her, wherever she goes, riding on her shoulders. Oh, she knows that everyone has shoulder friends, but hers always feels special to her. The one who rides on her right shoulder is Shoulder Papa. She calls him that because he’s the shoulder spirit form of her Papa. She doesn’t look much like him though. He’s all dark haired and dark eyed, while she’s blonde with green eyes. (Uncle Barry has pointed out before that she has his nose and chin and she smiles exactly like him when she’s excited. She still can’t see the resemblance though). The one that sits on her left is a tiny square-shaped clank called Castle. Castle has a giant red lens in the center of its body and a cluster of little pipes emerging from the top of its head. It likes to call her “young mistress” and _insists_ that it is an actual castle. Agatha thinks that it’s being silly. She’s seen castles from a distance before after all, and they look _nothing_ like her little friend. Castle gets angry whenever she points that out though.

Today, she and her uncle are in the town of Khoye to buy supplies before they journey west. Uncle Barry will either barter away interesting things that they’ve picked up on their travels, or fix and mend stuff in exchange for money or supplies. She likes to watch him fix mechanisms and sometimes, he even allows her to assist him. This time however, he shooed her away and told her to go play in the park nearby. 

And here she is now, walking through the park with her stuffed clank Princess Stompyboots that Uncle Barry bought for her in the previous town dangling from one hand. The park appears be a popular spot for other kids. On her right, a bunch of boys are playing football and to her left, some older girls are playing jumping rope. There’s three other kids playing a game of tag, weaving about the other two groups as they chase each other around.

Agatha is pondering which group to join when she feels a tap on her shoulder. She whirls around to see another girl about her age. The girl has curly brown hair with bright blue eyes set in a freckled face. She also has a rag doll tucked under one arm.

“Hi,” chirps the girl. “My name is Anya. What’s yours?”

“Agatha,” replies Agatha and she puts a hand out for Anya to shake. Anya seizes her hand and pumps it vigorously a few times before releasing it.

“Do you want to play tea parties with me?” asks Anya.

Agatha has never played tea parties before and finds herself curious. She nods eagerly in response. “Sure!”

Anya grins widely, revealing a chip in a front tooth. She then grabs Agatha by the hand and tugs her over to a corner where a toy tea set was lying, and urges Agatha to sit down. Anya claps her hands together once Agatha is seated. “Now, let’s play!”

Countess Natalia Woggleburg is currently paying her good friend, Princess Stompyboots, a visit. The two of them are drinking tea and munching on cake while they talk. Countess Natalia talks about her latest husband who is named Count Puffypants. (She is currently on her fifth marriage). Princess Stompyboots tells her about her latest invention - a mechanical carriage that can convert into a submarine with two giant death rays attached.

“We should have some flowers to act as the death rays,” announces Anya.

“I’ll get them,” announces Agatha as she gets up from her seat. She saw some lovely orchids growing nearby. They’d be perfect for their game!

She is picking flowers when she hears Anya cry out. She turns around to see an older boy holding Countess Natalia out of Anya’s reach, jerking the doll away whenever she tries to grab it. 

“Give her back, Henri! She’s _my_ doll!” cries Anya.

“Take it back yourself if you want it so much,” taunts the bully.

Agatha clenches her fists, the flowers forgotten. How _dare_ this boy bully her friend so!

“You should tell him to give Anya back her doll,” pipes a voice close to her right ear.

“I know, Shoulder Papa,” replies Agatha. 

She marches up to the bully and looks him straight in the eye, putting her hands on her hips as she does so.

“Hey!” she snaps. “Give Anya back her doll or else I’ll make you sorry.”

The boy sneers at her. “And what are you going to do about it if I don’t, _baby_?”

Agatha hesitates. What _can_ she do to make this awful boy give Anya back her doll?

“Alright, Agatha,” says Shoulder Papa again. “This is where you should-“

“Stab him in the leg with your screwdriver!” yells Castle from her left shoulder.

Agatha thinks this excellent advice, so she pulls her screwdriver out from her pocket and stabs the boy in the leg. The boy screams and drops the doll immediately, allowing Anya to scoop it up. He collapses to the ground, clutching his injured leg.

“Ow, it hurts!” he wails, tears and snot starting to run down his face.

Castle cackles maniacally. “Stab him again, stab him again!” it urges as it kicks its little feet against her shoulder.

“No, don’t stab him again,” protests Shoulder Papa. “Once was more than enough, frankly.”

What Agatha does is this: she puts her hands back on her hips and looks down her nose at the sobbing boy. “Maybe this will teach you not to bully smaller kids,” she tells him. 

The boy sniffs and rubs an arm over his face to wipe the tears away before getting to his feet. “I’m telling my mother about this!” he yells. He then turns around and starts running away as quickly as he can. Agatha notes that he has a slight limp in the leg she stabbed.

Anya tackles Agatha into a tight hug around the waist. “Agatha, thank you so much for getting Natalia back for me!” she yells. “And don’t worry about Henri, he _deserved_ to get stabbed, in my opinion. He’s just _awful_” 

Agatha grins at her. “Want to continue playing, then?”

Anya nods vigorously in answer to that. 

The two girls both settle back down to play their game. Unfortunately, Agatha’s shoulder spirits take this opportunity to have an argument.

“Red fire, Castle! Was it _really_ necessary to advise her to stab that kid with a screwdriver?”

“I don’t see the problem here. It got rid of that brat, didn’t it?”

“You can’t advise her to _stab_ people! Firstly, it’s wrong to stab and secondly, it’s inappropriate to use a screwdriver like that!”

“Well, it’s hardly _my_ fault that your brother didn’t give her a proper knife.”

“She’s only five! And that’s not the point anyway, she shouldn’t think it’s alright to stab people.”

“Well, I don’t see why not.”

“You _would_ think that, wouldn’t you, you overgrown pile of bricks?”

Agatha claps her hands over her ears. “Guys, would you please stop arguing?” she yells. “I can’t concentrate with the two of you fighting like this!”

“Forgive me, young mistress,” says Castle from her left shoulder.

“Yeah, sorry, Agatha,” says Shoulder Papa.

There is silence from them for a few minutes and then, “In any case, the deed’s already done, so there’s no point crying over spilt blood,” says Castle, determined to have the last word.

Shoulder Papa sighs and Agatha groans, putting her face in her hands.

Anya giggles. “You shouldn’t scold your shoulder spirits so, Agatha,” she says. “I don’t think that they would be proper shoulder spirits if they _didn’t_ fight, you know?”

Agatha looks up at her. “Wait, yours argue too?”

Anya nods solemnly. “All the time.”

The two girls launch into a conversation about shoulder spirits as they play. It turns out that most people’s shoulder spirits _aren’t_ related to them. (This Agatha finds odd as she herself has her father as one of her shoulder spirits and Uncle Barry has _both_ his parents as his shoulder spirits and according to Uncle Barry, her paternal grandparents had each other as their shoulder spirits). It still means that the real versions of the shoulder spirits - if they’re still alive - are going to be ( if you haven’t met them yet) some of the most important people in your lives. (Platonic soulmates, is what Uncle Barry said.) Anya’s own shoulder spirits is one of the town’s librarians and a - she lowers her voice to whisper this - patchwork construct named Oskaar. She has yet to meet him though. 

The two girls play and talk until it starts getting dark and Anya has to make her way home. Agatha makes for the inn that she and Uncle Barry are currently staying at. She might not know her way about this town, but Shoulder Papa and Castle know the way back, and all she has to do is follow their directions. Uncle Barry is already waiting for her outside the inn, his arms folded over his chest. 

“Frau Brahm told me what you did to her son,” Uncle Barry informs her. 

“Did she tell you about her son being a meanie and bullying other kids?” retorts Agatha.

“No, she did not. But that doesn’t mean it’s right to stab a boy in the leg with your screwdriver.”

“Castle told me to do it!” cries Agatha.

Uncle Barry pinches the bridge of his nose. “Agatha, what have I said about listening to Castle?”

Agatha sighs. “Don’t listen to Castle because it’s my shoulder devil which means that it will give me bad advice,” she recites. 

Uncle Barry nods. “That’s absolutely right. And since you _do_ know that, you get no supper for the rest of the week and you are to apologise to Henri Brahm tomorrow, is that clear?”

Agatha hangs her head. “Crystal,” she whispers.

“Good, now let’s go have dinner,” says her uncle.

Dinner that day is a quiet affair and after that, Agatha is given a quick bath before she is marched to an early bed.

“Next time when you’re in this sort of situation, please listen to Shoulder Papa. He’s your shoulder angel after all,” orders Uncle Barry before blowing out the candle and leaving her in darkness.

There is a sigh from her right shoulder after Uncle Barry leaves the room. “In fairness, I was going to advise you to kick that bully in the groin, so you’d still have gotten punished anyway,” admits Shoulder Papa. 

“It’s okay, Shoulder Papa,” whispers Agatha.

“Do you want your bedtime story now?” asks Shoulder Papa. “It _is_ my turn to tell you a story, you know.”

Agatha claps her hands in delight. “Yes!” she cries.

On the nights that Uncle Barry is too busy or too tired to tell her a bedtime story, her shoulder spirits will tell her one, taking turns as they do. Castle’s bedtime stories are always about the Old Heterodynes. (Agatha thinks that they sound like a rather mean bunch, but she can’t deny that the descriptions of their death rays and other Sparky weapons sound _very_ interesting). Shoulder Papa on the other hand, tells her stories about the Heterodyne Boys, though _never_ ones with Lucrezia in them. (Agatha gets the feeling that he doesn’t like her much.)

Tonight’s story is about the time the Heterodyne Boys went to China, met the Emperor himself and had to solve the mystery of his missing biomechanical phoenix. Agatha listens in fascination but despite her best efforts, she falls asleep during the part where the Boys accidentally fall into the concubines’ quarters. The last thing she remembers before sleep embraces her, is a tiny kiss on her cheek.

—————————————————

Her name is currently Agatha Nikolai, and she and her uncle are in a new town altogether. They’ve already been here a few weeks and Agatha is daring to hope that maybe they’ll get to settle down in this town. They’ve currently rented out an apartment in a good part of the town. At the moment, Uncle Barry in his workshop and she herself is her room, taking apart a broken clock that she has found. She’s trying to create a new mechanism altogether from the parts but it’s really hard to concentrate what with the constant banging and hammering coming from downstairs because the building owner is making renovations. If she could only just **_shut out all the noise, she’d be really able to make SOMETHING_**. 

Agatha begins to hum.

**_Oh, she can SEE how the completed mechanism would look like, how GLORIOUS it shines, while the music of the entire UNIVERSE plays on in the background, and all she needs to do is- is-_**

She fumbles with one of the gears and drops it and her little project falls apart. The image of the completed mechanism dissolves in her mind and the music stops. Agatha curses, using words that Uncle Barry uses when he thinks that she isn’t listening, and throws another gear at the wall. She almost had it!

“Agatha, Agatha!” comes two voices from her shoulders. 

Agatha puts her hands to her shoulders, allowing her little shoulder friends to hop into her palms. Once they do so, she brings them in front of her so that she can talk to them face-to-face. They both look besides themselves with excitement. Castle especially, is practically dancing with joy. She on the other hand, is feeling particularly grumpy after her little failure and she scowls down on them.

“What?” she grumbles.

“Agatha, do you know what you just did?” asks Shoulder Papa, beaming up at her.

Agatha shrugs. “Made a mess?” she hazards.

Castle shakes its head. “No, young mistress. You het-“ Shoulder Papa coughs “-did the family hum. That’s _amazing_! Why, you’re the youngest of the family to start! Most of them don’t learn how to do it until they’re in their teens.”

“So, what’s so amazing about this particular hum?” asks Agatha.

“It means that you’re going to be a Spark,” Shoulder Papa tells her. “In our family, doing that hum is a precursor to breakthrough.”

That clears up Agatha’s bad mood. She’s going to be a Spark! Just like the Heterodyne Boys! Just like Uncle Barry (and Papa too when he was alive)! She wriggles happily in place.

“Did my mo- I mean, my _grandmother_ know how to do it too?” she asks. Agatha mentally kicks herself for almost mentioning her mother to her shoulder friends when she knows how much it upsets them. (Well, it upsets Shoulder Papa at least. Castle just turns away and starts muttering what sounds like bad words in a foreign tongue at any mention of her.) 

Both the shoulder spirits shake their heads. “It comes from the paternal side,” explains Castle.

“And in any case, your paternal grandmother was never a Spark in the first place,” adds Shoulder Papa. 

“Oh,” says Agatha, and puts that piece of information away to the side. The important thing is that she’s going to be a Spark and she needs to show Uncle Barry right _now_ that she knows how to do the family hum. She _thinks_ that she knows how to do it again and won’t Uncle Barry be so surprised and happy when she shows him?

Uncle Barry is _not_ happy to hear her hum.

In fact, he looked rather upset before he practically threw her out of his workshop. 

She flops down on her bed, good mood all gone, before she once again moves her shoulder spirits to her palms and brings them up to her face.

“Why?” she demands. “Why was Uncle Barry so mad about me doing the family hum? I thought that he’d be _happy_ about it!”

The two shoulder spirits exchange a look. 

“I think that he’s just scared,” offers Shoulder Papa. “Many Sparks _do_ die in breakthrough, you know. And you are so very young now.”

Agatha cocks her head to one side. “What’s so dangerous about breakthrough?”

“It’s because during a fugue, all common sense gets quickly thrown out of the window,” explains Castle. “It’s how you get Sparks making giant constructs with fangs, claws and poison stingers and then giving it a complete hatred of humanity. Or making sausage-making clanks that rampage throughout the countryside, turning people into sausages, _including_ their creator. And even if the creation turns out fine, there’s the possibility of being attacked by an angry mob of townspeople. Lots of things for your Uncle to worry about now, see?”

“But I’m not going to make evil constructs or sausage-making clanks,” objects Agatha. “I’m going to make-“ she pauses as she thinks for a few moments “-well, I don’t know what I’m going to make when I breakthrough, but it’s certainly not going to be either of that.”

“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what you’re going to create when it happens,” says Shoulder Papa. “I’m already looking forward to seeing what your breakthrough project is going to be.”

“Me too,” chimes Castle. “Though that probably isn’t going to be for another few months.”

Agatha groans. That sounds like _forever_!

Shoulder Papa chuckles. “Don’t worry, Agatha. It’ll happen in its own time.”

Agatha can only groan again.

—————————————————————————

Agatha does the family hum as she works on her latest creation, which is going to be a water-powered musical instrument once she’s done with it. (Castle claims that it won’t be long before she finally breaks through). Agatha believes it. She can keep up the family hum for longer periods now and the shining mechanism that seemed so far away in the beginning gets closer and closer each time.

She fixes the hammer in place and stops her hum with a happy sigh. Her beautiful creation is coming together so nicely. 

“Agatha,” calls Uncle Barry from behind. “I have a present for you.”

Agatha _loves_ presents. “What is it?” she asks.

Uncle Barry takes out a brass locket with a beetle? design on it from a pocket. (“A trilobite,” supplies Shoulder Papa.)

“It belonged to your mother,” says Uncle Barry.

Agatha eagerly takes the locket. She opens it to reveal two portraits - a man and a woman. The man is clearly Shoulder Papa.

“These are pictures of your parents - how they really looked like,” confirms Uncle Barry.

Agatha looks at the picture of her mother. She’s always wondered what her mother looked like, and here she is now. She has golden blonde hair and green eyes (just like hers!) with full pouting lips. 

“She’s so pretty!” breathes Agatha. “Will I be as pretty as her when I grow up?”

“Prettier,” says Uncle Barry. (Her shoulder friends make sounds of assent as well.)

Uncle Barry sits down on the grass besides her and his face turns solemn. “Now, Agatha, this is very important. You must _always_ wear this.”

“But why?”

“Because... because as long as you do, the locket can... protect you.” (Castle wonders if the locket contains a death ray. Shoulder Papa argues that Uncle Barry would hardly put something so dangerous in a child’s locket.)

Her shoulder spirits have a point. “How can a necklace protect me?”

Uncle Barry rubs the back of his head, not looking at her as he does so. “Um... it’s science,” he replies.

Agatha raises an eyebrow at him. “Ah. You mean you’ll explain when I have a sufficiently advanced background education.” 

“Er... yes,” says Uncle Barry, blinking down at her.

Well, that settles it. Uncle Barry will explain everything once she’s old enough. More importantly, she really wants to wear this beautiful locket now. She lifts her hair out of the way so that Uncle Barry can put it on. He’s sniffing as he does so.

“Uncle Barry, are you crying?” she asks.

“No, no, you’re just getting so big,” he replies, blinking back tears. (“You are,” whispers Shoulder Papa fondly). Uncle Barry closes the latch. “There, it’s done.”

Agatha looks happily down on her locket. It’s such a pretty thing and she bets it makes _her_ prettier with it around her neck. 

“Where’s a mirror? I wanna see!” she demands. She wants to admire herself in the mirror for a while and then she’ll get back to work on her lovely mech- A sudden pain lances through her skull like a white-hot bar of iron.

“Ow!” she screams, clapping a hand to her throbbing forehead. 

“What’s wrong?” asks Uncle Barry, looking concerned. 

Agatha rubs her head, trying to relieve the throbbing pain. It doesn’t work. “I wanna lie down,” she answers. “My head hurts.”

“That’s a good idea,” agrees Uncle Barry as he guides her to her room. Halfway, her head hurts so much that it makes her knees buckle and he ends up carrying her to bed. He tucks her gently into bed and kisses her on the forehead. “Hope you’ll feel better when you wake up again.”

Agatha nods mutely, eyes shut close as she does. Hopefully a good rest will make this weird pain go away. She hears Uncle Barry close the door. Even that small noise makes her wince. She snuggles into her covers, eyes still closed. It isn’t long before she tumbles into slumber.

She wakes up after what seems like a few hours, judging from the position of the sun that she can see from her window. Happily, the awful headache is now gone and she’s feeling much better. Agatha yawns and stretches in her bed. “Good evening, Shoulder Papa, Castle,” she greets her shoulder spirits, as is her usual, when she wakes up.

There is silence.

Agatha blinks. “Shoulder Papa? Castle?” she calls again.

There is still no reply.

Agatha bolts up in her bed, frantically looking down from one shoulder to the next. Her little shoulder friends aren’t there. She pats her shoulders. She can’t feel them either. She looks under her pillow (not here), throws back her covers (not here), and looks under her bed (not here either). 

Agatha bites her lip as she scans her little bedroom for any sign of her shoulder friends. “Castle? Shoulder Papa? You can come out now,” she whispers, her throat suddenly dry. “You win at hide-and-seek, alright? So... please come out.”

They don’t come out. 

Agatha whimpers, trying not to cry. Her little shoulder friends have disappeared and she doesn’t know where they could be. No, wait. Could she have _dropped_ them on the way back to her room? Perhaps they’re outside, either waiting for her to come back for them, or slowly making their way back to the house. She races out of her room, ready to find them, and runs right into Uncle Barry.

“Uncle Barry, Uncle Barry, something terrible has happened!” cries Agatha, tugging his pants as she does so.

Uncle Barry frowns down on her. “Why, what’s wrong?”

“My shoulder spirits have disappeared!” wails Agatha.

Uncle Barry pales. “That can’t be,” he says, more to himself. He slowly reaches down and gently taps Agatha on the right shoulder. “Bill?” he whispers.

Agatha shakes her head. “He’s not there, Uncle Barry. I think he and Castle must’ve fallen off outside.” She tugs on his pants again. “Can you help me find them, please?”

“Right, right, of course,” replies Uncle Barry, not meeting her eyes as he speaks. He rubs his face. “Let’s go, shall we?”

She still can’t find her shoulder friends. Agatha calls their names over and over again as she searches the ground, but there’s no reply or even any sign of them. She hopes that a bird hasn’t carried them off while she was inside. Can birds even _see_ shoulder spirits in the first place? She doesn’t know.__

_ _Feeling a little tired of searching, Agatha despondently plops herself on the ground. She’s searched and searched but she can’t find her shoulder friends _anywhere_! Uncle Barry is still searching through the shrubbery even though he can’t actually see her shoulder spirits, but maybe his own shoulder spirits can tell him? An idea suddenly hits Agatha. Her shoulder friends like science too! They always get interested every time she works on a mechanism, occasionally giving out advice and pointing out stray screws or the correct tool to use. Maybe if she works on her project, they’ll show up again!_ _

_ _Agatha rushes over to where her project is and picks up her screwdriver. Now, what was the next step again? She can’t seem to visualise the completed mechanism now. She does the family hum. Or rather, she _tries_ to do the family hum, but it just comes out as regular humming. She stops. That’s odd. The family hum has always come easily to her ever since the first time she did it. She tries again to make that odd buzzing, droning hum. Still no go. She tries a couple more times, but it always comes out as regular humming. She abandons her attempts and tries to figure out the next step to take in her project, but her thoughts are suddenly so slow and she can’t seem to concentrate properly. Maybe if she connects this spoon to that piece of mechanism over there - no, that’s not right. Or perhaps if she adds another hammer right here - no, that’s not it either. Or what if she **_puts another gear right over_**\- a bolt of pain suddenly lances through her head. Agatha drops the gear in favour of grabbing her head between her hands in a futile attempt to reduce the pain. Her head hurts so much!_ _

_ _Agatha glares at her half-completed project with watering eyes. She hates this stupid mechanism so much! She stands up and kicks it over and over again, sending bits and pieces flying everywhere. She picks up the little water tank and throws it into a bush. There, all gone! She looks down at the ruins of her project and her rage suddenly leaks out of her like water through a cracked cup. Oh no, what has she done? Hours of hard work, just destroyed in a flash!_ _

_ _Agatha crumples to the ground and starts to cry. Today’s suddenly turned so horrible and she doesn’t know why! Her shoulder friends have gone missing, she can’t do the family hum anymore, her project is ruined and her head won’t! stop! hurting!_ _

_ _“Agatha! Agatha, what’s wrong?” calls Uncle Barry._ _

_ _“My head hurts,” sobs Agatha. _ _

_ _“Oh dear,” says Uncle Barry. “Let’s get you back to the house, alright?”_ _

_ _Uncle Barry picks her up and carries her back to the house, rubbing her back gently as he walks. He insists that she eat some porridge and drink some willowbark tea before going to bed. Agatha obediently does so, even though today’s porridge is more tasteless than usual. When she finally goes to bed, she closes her eyes and hopes against hope that her shoulder spirits will be back in the morning. _ _

_ _They aren’t. _ _

_ _They aren’t back the next day either. Or the day after that. Or the day even after that. No matter how much Agatha begs and cries and prays and pleads for them to come back, they never turn up again. And it’s really no wonder! Because she’s slow and _stupid_ and can’t do anything right. She never goes through breakthrough either. Maybe that’s why her shoulder spirits left. They realised that they were wrong about her and that she was going to turn out like _this_ and they were just too embarrassed to be with her anymore. _ _

_ _Agatha can’t blame Uncle Barry for leaving her and never coming back either. She’s really been an awful burden on him - stupid dumb girl who keeps getting terrible migraines all the time. At least the Clays are nice. They’re so very kind to her and when they found out that she doesn’t have shoulder spirits anymore, they made it a habit not to talk to their own in front of her, either verbally or with sign language. It still hurts though, to see other people talk and laugh and argue with their shoulder spirits when she can’t do that anymore._ _

_ _There is only one thing that is constant in Agatha’s life, and that is her name._ _


	2. Chapter 2

Agatha heaves a sigh once the Wooster man left. She hopes that he finds her clothes as soon as possible. She can’t be wearing her undergarments for the rest of - oh, however long she’s staying in this place!

“I don’t like that guy,” grumbles a little voice near her right ear. “Like hey buddy, maybe you _wouldn’t_ be in this situation if you hadn’t - oh, I don’t know - _broken into an innocent girl’s home and assaulted her_!”

“I vote for skewering him with those fencing foils,” comes another voice, this one coming near her left ear. “Or better yet, skin the man alive. No, even better, he should be strapped to a dissection table and vivisected while he _screams_ and begs for mercy! Or maybe-“

No. It couldn’t be.

“Castle? Shoulder Papa?” whispers Agatha.

Castle stops in mid-rant. “Mistress, can you hear us?” it asks, voice full of hope.

Agatha lifts her suddenly trembling hands up to her shoulders just like she used to as a child. It only takes a few seconds for her to feel two pairs of tiny feet step into her palms. Slowly, she brings her palms up to her face, and there they are. Her shoulder spirits, looking exactly as they did the last time she saw them as a five-year-old girl. 

Shoulder Papa looks up at her, eyes all round and visibly swallows. “Agatha, can you... really see us?”

Agatha nods jerkily. Her shoulder spirits are back. She should be grateful but- “Where _were_ you?” she cries. “I called for you two so many times but you never showed up!”

“We never left!” yells Castle, taking a step forward, its little fists balled at its side. “Not for one minute-“

“Except when you were changing, bathing or in the need for - ah - _privacy_,” adds Shoulder Papa hastily.

“You just... stopped seeing and hearing us one day,” continues Castle. Its shoulders slump. “And nothing we said or did could change that - no matter how hard we tried.”

“We still watched over you though,” says Shoulder Papa, his voice thick with emotion. “We saw how hard you struggled and how much you worked, despite everything that life was throwing at you, all the failures and trials... And yet, you never once gave up, never ever stopped trying and I want you to know that I - _we_ \- are so very, very proud of you.”

Agatha bursts into tears.


End file.
